


A Realization

by The_Winged_Wolf



Category: Stranger Things (TV 2016)
Genre: Drabble, M/M, Post-Season/Series 02, Pre-Season/Series 03
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-17
Updated: 2019-07-17
Packaged: 2020-06-30 06:35:36
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 506
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19847572
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/The_Winged_Wolf/pseuds/The_Winged_Wolf
Summary: In the days after El closes the Gate to the Upside-Down, Mike comes to realize something about how he feels about Will





	A Realization

**Author's Note:**

> I wrote this between 1 and 2 in the morning on tumblr on the mobile app. Apologies for any grammatical errors that resulted.

If you had asked Mike even a few days ago what the best part of his life was, he wouldn't have been able to answer you.

He might have said his friends, The Party, who stuck together through thick and thin. Through the bullies and the hell that is middle school. Through everything.

If he knew you, he might have said El. That amazing girl he met a year ago, who could move things with her mind like a superhero, who despite her traumatic past was sweet and caring, who didn't look at him like he was a freak.

If he was feeling cheeky, he might have said D&D. Or the AV Club. Or Star Wars or Lord of the Rings. Things he could get lost in to avoid the reality that is a life full of bullying and with parents that don't love each other and sometimes don't seem to care about their own children unless they dared to interfere with the status quo.

He could have said any of those things. And now he knew it would have been lies.

It has been a week since The Gate was closed. A week since he and almost everyone he cared for nearly died. A week since El came back into his life.

A week since he almost lost his best friend.

But no, Will wasn't just his best friend. He knew that now. After the shed, after he said befriending Will was the best thing he's ever done, he knew the truth.

When Will was missing in the Upside-Down and everyone believed him dead, Mike was desperate to find him, he hadn't quite registered what failure would mean. What it would mean to lose him. He figured it would be something like the emptiness he felt for that brief time after the fake body was discovered when he thought it was Will times infinity. But a week ago, he had to fully face it.

He had almost lost Will. He had watched the shadow monster slowly take him. Watch the Will he knew and adored and, yes, he would admit it to himself for these few moments, loved be consumed by a beast that viewed everyone with hatred and suspicion and would kill them all, emotions that did not fit on his Will's face. Watch Will be lost again. Watch Will die before Mike's eyes. And Mike could do nothing. Except plead as he realized what a life without Will, without his drawings, without his smile, without his laugh, without seeing his eyes everyday, would mean. What it would do to him.

He hadn't planned on saying what he said in the shed. He just said it. Befriending Will was the best thing Mike has ever done.

And it was true. But it didn't encompass what Will was to him.

Will was his best friend, his partner, his other half, his soulmate, his sunshine.

For Mike had come to realize, the best part of his life is, was, and always will be Will Byers.

**Author's Note:**

> You can find me at [the-winged-wolf-bran-stark](https://the-winged-wolf-bran-stark.tumblr.com/) on tumblr. One day, I might learn why I am on that site.


End file.
